Of Dengue epidemics ... and life in the Middle Ages.

28 March 2008

Tough times. Very tough times.

In my blog: 10 things you MUST do to get traffic to your site I write: "... blog regularly - at least two or three times a week. If you can't be bothered updating regularly, why should a visitor bother returning?"

Hmmm. The most I can say, thank God the site is still in its infancy, and thank God that the little traffic we get is so loyal. Oh yeah, and thank God, many times over, and then some, that little Monstrinho didn't die, against expectations.

I am so dedicated to this site, and to our little community, that if the blog suddenly stopped, then something drastic must have happened.

It did.

Rio is in the middle of a massive epidemic - Dengue Fever. Currently 40,000 cases, 150 plus deaths, mostly children. A state of emergency has been declared and the army is setting up medical tents in parks because the hospitals imploded long ago.

For those tourists who have visited the little community, we have had two deaths, this week, in the street leading up to our steps, those famous steps we fought so hard to get started - a man of 40 and a boy of 8. So far, only one case within the community, but he survived. That's little Monstrinho, below, whom I have just nursed for 5 straight days, day and night. He was so thin to start with, his reserves were almost nothing. That first foto is a repeat, one that Daniel took a while back, showing his 'diet'. We are working on that. The second foto shows him in bed: a small pillow, and a mat on top of a cement floor. So, it's pretty damn obvious that there are a few things need doing, still. We are on it, thanks to Vicki the first complete bathroom will be functioning in just a week or two. Vicki was the wonderful lady with the pink hair who blew the adults here out of the water. The kids gave her the nickname 'Para chuva' [Stop raining!] after it threatened to rain during her visit, and she loudly admonished the heavens.

I have so much mail to answer, a backlog from hell, so to avoid overload, and as I am utterly exhausted, I am putting much of what I would have written here, and directing everyone to read this. Don't be offended or feel you ain't important. Willy warned me about burnout, but I couldn't foresee this! However, it's just physical, not mental, so I am shortly right back on track. Daniel and Daniel I have put well away from here, as far from mosquitoes as I can put them. That has impacted on us very painfully, as Daniel [Ca$h] helps with the rent, with his tours. In that respect, we are totally f***ed. Better alive and homeless, I reckon, than dead and wealthy. Anyway, there are very few tourists at the moment. You would have to be a complete idiot to visit Rio in the next month or two. The Dengue mosquito attacks during the day. Kids are all going to school in 40C heat wearing long pants and long-sleeved shirts. Weeks ago Rio ran out of insect repellent.

I love my two boys beyond words, I cannot imagine my life without them. So they are staying well out of it for a few more weeks. I suffered Dengue Fever in 2001, so I have to take every precaution myself, as the second case is generally fatal.

Forget Dengue. Moving right along... Monstrinho is a vital part of his family, and of our plans to bring this community into this century. It works like this: forget the adults. Bluntly, they are at the bottom of the list. Any permanent changes to these kids' lives must come from THEM. The parents are just baggage we have to work around. An example: it took me three months to stop the kids from throwing stones at each other over every trivial dispute. [It's my turn... liar! liar! it's mine... you had yours already liar!... HURL HURL HURL]. One of the biggest problems was in getting the adults to realise that hurling stones is dangerous, you can lose an eye in a flash. For weeks they all sat, amused, and watched my attempts to stop the kids. I had to resort to ostracising any kid I saw pitch a rock before the message started to get through.

Ditto with litter. Vicki - again! - was shocked at the litter lying about. Unsightly AND unhygienic, attracting rats and cockroaches. We have just started on that now. I have put in two bins, and have a few kids jumping on anyone who ignores them. It's going to take some time - Alice, in her little canteen, will happily eat sweets and toss the papers down the hill in front of all her kids. And almost every other adult does the same. They simply don't see it. These things we can change at no cost other than time, and patience, and this education is something permanent the kids will carry away from the experience.

And this is how Monstrinho fits in: he is the youngest of seven kids. Also, along with Baby, he with the swollen belly of malnutrition beside him in the third foto, is one of the smartest kids in the place. So we teach these two, and they supervise the rest of their family. They incessantly do this within their families: "Joao, wash your hands before you eat. Mateus, come back here, you haven't done your teeth. Felipe, change your shirt - that one's too dirty for school!" This is the role of a parent, but they neither notice nor care. So these habits must be instilled in an alternate way. The youngest kids give the best leverage, as they are least set in their ways and most open to change. It takes a while to set new habits, particularly with hygiene, and it must be drilled in constantly. Further, the younger kids' reminders are open and non-offensive, given without criticism or judgement, just a gentle prod to produce an "Oh yeah, that's right" response.

I am working on a two-pieces-of-fruit-a-day project. I am hoping to use Alice's little canteen, and as the kids go off to school each day, they stop by and grab two pieces of fruit. Their diet, without exception, is beans and rice. Occasionally throw in an egg or a small piece of chicken. Even more occasionally it's just plain rice. Fruit and vegetables are as alien as lunar landings. So even though our finances are zero - again - we can still make good progress. Interestingly, I didn't even think of these things when Daniel talked me into the Project. I was thinking solely in terms of building steps, putting in toilets, eradicating lice and tooth decay, and getting kids into English classes. It has morphed into ballet classes, computer classes, personal hygiene, diet, curriculums for better employment, emergency medical stores and many other sidestreets.

I mention the Middle Ages because that's where so many of the adults here are trapped. I write this without criticism or judgement, just to create an awareness of the weight of the task. Certainly we avoid creating any dependency on us, but we damn well are determined to set long term changes in motion for these kids - and permanent ones at that. Here life crawls by at a snail's pace. Most people do exactly the same thing at exactly the same time every day. Wake up at eight. Fold the mats that are the bedding. Fetch water. Boil the rice. Sweep the floor. Wash the shirts. Eat the rice. Wash the dishes. Fetch water. The order never changes... and if I put the rice on before the mats are collected I create a lot of confusion! When someone is sick, we climb a tree, collect some leaves, boil them up and drink the tea. No one ever gets better this way - but that's what you do, so that is that! If I leave medication with instructions that it should be taken every four hours, on my next return the kid will still be sick, or sicker, and the medication will still be in its box. No one minds if I give medication to the kids, they just think I'm a bit eccentric, and waste precious money when that there ole tree is just bending over with its load of leaves...

I have so much more to write, will do so in the next few days as I get back on track. The Lan House we use was closed for a week, due to this damn Dengue, but Willy saved me by funding a 2gig pendrive, where the whole site now resides, safely, until we get on top of things and get ourselves a laptop. I would thank him for that, but it bugs him when I do, so I will just let his karma take care of that.

Finally, if any of you intrepid travelers who visited the community could take just five minutes and send me your impressions, we can really use them on our testimonial page... and there are still a lot of fotos people promised to send...

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